Database Users

Good news for CM fans!

From the official CM blog:
It’s been awhile since the last update and I just wanted to let everyone know about our progress with CM9. As I mentioned in the previous update, Android 4.0 contains many internal changes that require updated graphics drivers. Unfortunately, these drivers are almost always closed-source and don’t appear until a device or devkit is released with them. For many devices, our hands are tied. Some very clever workarounds have gone into CM9, but we’re still blocked on some subsystems like the camera.
Since Android 4.0 is such a major change from 2.3, we started with a fresh codebase from Google and have been forward-porting features from CM7 with an eye on design and better integration. This is a somewhat time-consuming process, but it allows us to rethink everything. We’ve eliminated the CMParts app, instead choosing to add our custom features directly into the main settings. We are also taking a “just works” approach when it comes to configuration- CM7 had too many options that just weren’t widely used. We hope to achieve a good balance between tweakability and a great out-of-the-box experience. I want your phone or tablet to feel like it should have come with CM9.
Currently, you can compile CM9 for a small number of devices- notably the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wi-Fi and T-Mobile versions), the HP Touchpad and Motorola Xoom. The next devices to show up will likely be a whole array of Samsung phones (Exynos chipset), with devices based on the Qualcomm MSM8660 and 7×30 chipsets to follow. It’s still unclear if we can provide support for the QSD8x50 family of devices (Nexus One, HTC Evo, etc), but the answer almost always turns out to be “yes” for these kinds of things.
As our hardware support improves, I’ll keep this blog updated. As much as we’d like to stay ahead of the manufacturers, it may be a tie this time Thanks for the continued support, and please consider dropping us a buck or two using the link at the bottom of the page if you enjoy CyanogenMod.
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While it doesn't say specifically, it looks like we'll be getting official CM9 support!

The day that is released (stable) will mark the day of my first non-stock flash of the Note.

Porting S Voice to other device. Is this Illegal??

I have been a fan of XDA and appreciate the development and support the devs provide. But last few days a thought is bugging me continuously. We saw a lot of posts about S Voice and other apps being ported to other devices. Specially for S Voice, I believe that it's illegal as this could potentially cause Samsung to lose sales. My views:
1] We know that this is re-designed vlingo. vlingo is available in market, S Voice is NOT. Clear indication that they (as in Samsung) don't want the app to be used with other devices and they are not willing to sell it separately. Using vlingo from market is NOT same as using S Voice.
2] Did Samsung give us the permission to use/modify and distribute the app?
3] There is some infrastructure costs associated with running the services. It costs money to install and maintain servers and network. I work in enterprise storage management, so I am aware of costs associated with such massive infrastructure. Who pays for the non-SGS3 devices using the services?
4] Did Samsung every promise that SGS2/Nexus or other phones will get S Voice? So, why should we assume that other Samsung-device owners have the divine right to use a feature meant for SGS3?
5] It is one of the main USP for SGS3. Check here. This is listed as the top-most feature in the SGS3 product page. Hacking this app to be used with other phones is going to harm the phone sale. Is that not clear enough?
6] When Samsung started blocking connections from other devices - was that not an indication that they want the service exclusive for SGS3?
7] How is this different from movie piracy? The uploader never gains anything, but the studios/producers lose money.
8] What if Samsung starts locking their device in future with locked bootloaders/DRM/encryption because of such activities? Can we then blame Samsung for locking the devices?
9] Android is open source - but why assume that every feature in any Android is also open source? If someone can show me that S Voice is open source software, I will retract my statement.
It's sad that most people here equate freedom with piracy. Freedom and piracy are not same thing. Such act in the name of open source and community-feeling does not make it right. Maybe Samsung won't do anything about it -- but it does NOT make this act any better. It will just prove that Samsung considers this to be a petty nuisance (I am not using the word crime as I know nobody is doing this for any monetary gain).
Though I support open initiative with regards to Android, but I can't support such act.
Last check this statement from Samsung in VERGE
An initial test version of S Voice which was found online has been blocked as Samsung Electronics does not want consumers to judge the quality of the voice feature based on a test version. When the product is launched, users of GALAXY S III will be able to fully experience S Voice.

Exactly my thoughts. Though I am not sure what can be done to stop it.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

rd_nest said:
I have been a fan of XDA and appreciate the development and support the devs provide. But last few days a thought is bugging me continuously. We saw a lot of posts about S Voice and other apps being ported to other devices. Specially for S Voice, I believe that it's illegal as this could potentially cause Samsung to lose sales. My views:
1] We know that this is re-designed vlingo. vlingo is available in market, S Voice is NOT. Clear indication that they (as in Samsung) don't want the app to be used with other devices and they are not willing to sell it separately. Using vlingo from market is NOT same as using S Voice.
2] Did Samsung give us the permission to use/modify and distribute the app?
3] There is some infrastructure costs associated with running the services. It costs money to install and maintain servers and network. I work in enterprise storage management, so I am aware of costs associated with such massive infrastructure. Who pays for the non-SGS3 devices using the services?
4] Did Samsung every promise that SGS2/Nexus or other phones will get S Voice? So, why should we assume that other Samsung-device owners have the divine right to use a feature meant for SGS3?
5] It is one of the main USP for SGS3. Check here. This is listed as the top-most feature in the SGS3 product page. Hacking this app to be used with other phones is going to harm the phone sale. Is that not clear enough?
6] When Samsung started blocking connections from other devices - was that not an indication that they want the service exclusive for SGS3?
7] How is this different from movie piracy? The uploader never gains anything, but the studios/producers lose money.
8] What if Samsung starts locking their device in future with locked bootloaders/DRM/encryption because of such activities? Can we then blame Samsung for locking the devices?
9] Android is open source - but why assume that every feature in any Android is also open source? If someone can show me that S Voice is open source software, I will retract my statement.
It's sad that most people here equate freedom with piracy. Freedom and piracy are not same thing. Such act in the name of open source and community-feeling does not make it right. Maybe Samsung won't do anything about it -- but it does NOT make this act any better. It will just prove that Samsung considers this to be a petty nuisance (I am not using the word crime as I know nobody is doing this for any monetary gain).
Though I support open initiative with regards to Android, but I can't support such act.
Last check this statement from Samsung in VERGE
An initial test version of S Voice which was found online has been blocked as Samsung Electronics does not want consumers to judge the quality of the voice feature based on a test version. When the product is launched, users of GALAXY S III will be able to fully experience S Voice.
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Samsung will have known about this,
If they explicitly didnt want it to be shared with other android phones they could have prevented this easy in one of 2 ways,
1. integrate it into touchwiz framework
2. link the phones imei or unique identifier to the app and set up a database on the servers, similar to siri's protection.
Samsung wanted this app to be freely available as they have done nothing to protect its redistribution. I dont think they mind this because they have NO competitor in the Android market and are far superior to any other OEM that produces android phones.
PS. The Android OS is open source but there are many applications that have closed source to protect their business. Touchwiz source is never fully open sourced and neither is Sense.
I remember a year ago with the CM team asking for help from Samsung for little bits of protected code to get the camera fully functioning on the stock android rom (CM7 ROM).
JD

JupiterdroidXDA said:
Samsung will have known about this,
If they explicitly didnt want it to be shared with other android phones they could have prevented this easy in one of 2 ways,
1. integrate it into touchwiz framework
2. link the phones imei or unique identifier to the app and set up a database on the servers, similar to siri's protection.
Samsung wanted this app to be freely available as they have done nothing to protect its redistribution. I dont think they mind this because they have NO competitor in the Android market and are far superior to any other OEM that produces android phones.
PS. The Android OS is open source but there are many applications that have closed source to protect their business. Touchwiz source is never fully open sourced and neither is Sense.
I remember a year ago with the CM team asking for help from Samsung for little bits of protected code to get the camera fully functioning on the stock android rom (CM7 ROM).
JD
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My view is that we took the application and made it compatible with other devices, Samsung never explicitly gave the permission.
Maybe they thought it would be easier to upgrade the app if it's not integrated into the TW. But I fear such activity may force them to become less dev-friendly in future.
It's a different story if in future they make the code available for CM9 or other projects separately. I just hope not, but the way it's being spread over the internet, I fear they will react in some way. Also throws a bad light over XDA.

JupiterdroidXDA said:
Samsung wanted this app to be freely available as they have done nothing to protect its redistribution.
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They obviously didn't want it to be freely available because they have blocked it now.
Anyway, I don't get this mentality that if something is not impossible to take, it's ok to take it.

I will ask about the validity of ripping/porting the samsung apps and post back to this thread. If there is anything illegal about it (and im not sure there is unless the apps have been licensed specifically to the Galaxy S3) then any links on xda will be taken down.
I cant do anything about the rest of the internet though lol.
Mark.

mskip said:
I will ask about the validity of ripping/porting the samsung apps and post back to this thread. If there is anything illegal about it (and im not sure there is unless the apps have been licensed specifically to the Galaxy S3) then any links on xda will be taken down.
I cant do anything about the rest of the internet though lol.
Mark.
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Much appreciated. I wanted this to be brought to the notice of MODs. Nobody wants XDA to be in bad light for such a petty affair.
As for the apps (specially S Voice) being exclusive to SGS3, I think so. That's what I infer from Samsung's statement in Verge:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/22/3037943/samsung-blocking-s-voice-app-leak
But please do verify with relevant authorities and take appropriate actions (if required).

Mac OS X doesn't require a product key, but that doesn't mean my friend can just use my installation DVD legally, it all depends on the T&C's
The fact Samsung have blocked it for other devices should give an indication of their decision towards people using this software on another device. They may not send the FBI to kick down your door and arrest you, but cracking it to spoof a SGSIII for example would probably get a DMCA take-down notice pretty quickly. They almost certainly won't want all and sundry freely enjoying one of the big features of their new flagship device.

I have e-mailed Samsung PR dept on their views about this issue. Not sure if they check their Inbox

Unless we hear otherwise from Samsung, we will follow the normal site policy. In this case (though it is an edge case) for the moment we're allowing it.

If this is the case, then all devs who port roms from other models are in breach also.
Is this thread trying to stop dev work, and has the OP loaded the program, if he has shame on him for going against his beliefs, now let us and the devs get on with it.:what:
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Edit: phone model is Arc, now why did I change the prop build?

OP - Care to share how this is any different from all of the Sense ports to other devices? It's not.
I also like how you thanked Mark for checking into this - and that you were waiting to hear.... And then not even an hour later you go and contact Samsung PR? It sounds to me like you have an ax to grind.

I think everything that needs to be covered has been

[Q] Nexus 7 and multi window support

I was wondering if there are any apps or mods that give the Nexus 7 similar abilities as the Galaxy Note II and it's multi window function. I'm not concerned with having to root as I have already done so for USB access and some of my other apps. Thanks guys and gals.

Seems someone asks this every few weeks. Short answer- no, not possible at this time.
But since nobody comes to xda for the short answer.. here is the long one:
Once upon a time there was a great team of developers who wondered why they could not use a multi-window interface on android. They set out to make that a reality. CM saw the wonderful work they were doing and pledged to support it in their releases. Across the land there was peace and tranquility as developers happily set out coding their ROMs to take advantage of the new functionality. But the evil lord "G" (who totally promised not to be evil) was angered from the ancient land of android's origin and with his great omnipotent voice decreed that no subjects of his kingdom shall be allowed to use the new functionality. The CM developers and those from the cornerstone project were given no choice but to abandon the functionality that they had honed to near-perfection. Shortly after the decree was made by the evil lord, another royal empire "S" (who totally didn't steal that fruit company's designs) convinced the evil lord "G" that they could use the new functionality on specific applications that they themselves would create.
The royal empire "S" then created an entire framework similar to what the cornerstone project was working for, to support their custom applications. All of the functionality of the empire's functions is deeply embedded in the core of the "S" created roms.
Nobody that I know has been able to port the samsung stuff onto any device not made by them. Sorry, hope you enjoyed the story!

:silly:
:laugh:
good story

story
Can u please make that into an epic mmo.

Makes wanting TabletUI sort of pointless, doesn't it?

There are apps that work in window like floating browser,floating youtube,super video,air calc..etc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Calling all Note 10.1 Kernel Developers

Hello. I have written an app that helps to improve the accuracy of the S-Pen.Currently, it works only on Note phones and Note 8 tablets because Samsung has compiled some S-Pen device driver interfaces out of the Note 10.1 tablet kernels. It is not clear why they did this. I have asked Samsung but gotten no replies. I have confirmed that parts of the kernel code are removed via a couple conditionals in the open source kernel code (and you can see that some of the interface files found on phones and Note 8 do not exist on the Note 10.1 tablet). It seems that the Note 10.1 tablets can suffer from the same issues related to the S-Pen as do the phones/Note 8 and I have many people asking me to make my app work on their tablets. I cannot do so with the stock kernels because of the missing interface files.
A friendly and very helpful XDA member responded to my posting in the General forum here and has produced a kernel that, with very minor modification to the conditional compilation, seems to provide the interface files my Reset Spen app requires (and appears to do so without and ill side effects). And another XDA user installed it and tried my app confirming that it does seem to work on the Note 10.1 with this kernel. This can all be found in the thread.
So I am hoping for some more wide-spread incorporation of this modification into other kernels for the Note 10.1 so that I can support more users with my app and try to solve at least some of their S-Pen issues. If you can do this and can let me know, I can point my users to your kernels.
Thanks.

Here's the relevant commit in the source for my GT-N80XX kernel series.

kcrudup said:
Here's the relevant commit in the source for my GT-N80XX kernel series.
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Thanks for all.

kernal
hI you seem to be an expert
I am having difficulty to find out what kernal i need to use when I root my note 10.1
it appears everyone knows automatically but I am just not sure
I have never rooted before and dont want to brick my new device
do you have any ones you can recommend that is optimized for spen ?

Omni for SM-P605 (Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition LTE)

I'm a long-time Omni user on my Nexus devices. My wife recently got a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition (LTE) as part of her contract, and I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it is to be back in "Samsung's world". The hardware is incredible (Snapgragon 800, 3GB RAM, 2560x1600 display) but it is loaded with bloat on an outdated 4.3 ROM (only the wifi-only model (Samsung Octa) has Kitkat so far).
Now I know that for a device to be supported, it needs a maintainer. This is a very expensive, niche device, and I presume that there are not many users out there that will be suitable. So my question is, what does the job of a maintainer entail exactly? I've built CM for a couple of devices from source before, but that's about the extent of my knowledge with regards to custom ROM development. Is that sufficient?
I'm thinking that this device should be a fairly easy bring-up, being based on the same SOC as the Nexus 5 (amongst others).
How can I make this happen?

StNickZA said:
I'm a long-time Omni user on my Nexus devices. My wife recently got a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition (LTE) as part of her contract, and I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it is to be back in "Samsung's world". The hardware is incredible (Snapgragon 800, 3GB RAM, 2560x1600 display) but it is loaded with bloat on an outdated 4.3 ROM (only the wifi-only model (Samsung Octa) has Kitkat so far).
Now I know that for a device to be supported, it needs a maintainer. This is a very expensive, niche device, and I presume that there are not many users out there that will be suitable. So my question is, what does the job of a maintainer entail exactly? I've built CM for a couple of devices from source before, but that's about the extent of my knowledge with regards to custom ROM development. Is that sufficient?
I'm thinking that this device should be a fairly easy bring-up, being based on the same SOC as the Nexus 5 (amongst others).
How can I make this happen?
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Being a maintainer takes a LOT of reverse engineering skills. Integrating the OEM's blobs with "normal" AOSP or CAF sources can be a royal pain.
The best bet is to try and start your bringup by using a similar device as a starting point. Same platform is OK, same platform AND OEM is better.
For example, all of the Exynos 4210 devices (except the Tab 7 Plus/7.7) share a common device tree and kernel nowadays (the 7Plus/7.7 were too different from others in the family)
All of the Exynos 4412 devices have a common device tree that's inherited, and a common kernel.
Unfortunately, unlike the Note and Note 2, the Note 3 is significantly different from the GS4. However, your device might be similar to a Note 3, so you MIGHT be able to get started by adding Note 10.1 2014-specific parts to the Note3 kernel and modifying the device tree in a similar fashion.
The best way to learn maintainer skills is to find a device that is semi-supported and start working on figuring out how to fix its features that aren't quite working right. (In my case, I worked with atinm on resolving I777-specific issues to get that device lit up, then started working on remaining I9100/I777-common issues in CM back in the ICS days, then started on the Note which was similar to I777/I9100)
Expect to spend a LOT of time Googling stuff and searching through code. "grep", "strings" and "readelf -d" are your friends. (grep is for searching anything, strings is for looking at the strings in a blob, readelf -d shows you what libraries a blob depends on)
Even an experienced maintainer spends ****-tons of time searching for things and digging through data.
Patience is the most critical thing for a maintainer to have.

Entropy512 said:
Being a maintainer takes a LOT of reverse engineering skills. Integrating the OEM's blobs with "normal" AOSP or CAF sources can be a royal pain.
The best bet is to try and start your bringup by using a similar device as a starting point. Same platform is OK, same platform AND OEM is better.
For example, all of the Exynos 4210 devices (except the Tab 7 Plus/7.7) share a common device tree and kernel nowadays (the 7Plus/7.7 were too different from others in the family)
All of the Exynos 4412 devices have a common device tree that's inherited, and a common kernel.
Unfortunately, unlike the Note and Note 2, the Note 3 is significantly different from the GS4. However, your device might be similar to a Note 3, so you MIGHT be able to get started by adding Note 10.1 2014-specific parts to the Note3 kernel and modifying the device tree in a similar fashion.
The best way to learn maintainer skills is to find a device that is semi-supported and start working on figuring out how to fix its features that aren't quite working right. (In my case, I worked with atinm on resolving I777-specific issues to get that device lit up, then started working on remaining I9100/I777-common issues in CM back in the ICS days, then started on the Note which was similar to I777/I9100)
Expect to spend a LOT of time Googling stuff and searching through code. "grep", "strings" and "readelf -d" are your friends. (grep is for searching anything, strings is for looking at the strings in a blob, readelf -d shows you what libraries a blob depends on)
Even an experienced maintainer spends ****-tons of time searching for things and digging through data.
Patience is the most critical thing for a maintainer to have.
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Click to collapse
Thanks Entropy. Sounds like I don't have what's required for the job.

Entropy512 said:
However, your device might be similar to a Note 3, so you MIGHT be able to get started by adding Note 10.1 2014-specific parts to the Note3 kernel and modifying the device tree in a similar fashion.
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Click to collapse
The Note III (LTE) is the N9005, and I think the device code is hlte. I can't find a version of Omni for this device either.

StNickZA said:
The Note III (LTE) is the N9005, and I think the device code is hlte. I can't find a version of Omni for this device either.
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Yeah, no one has done an Omni bringup yet. IbrahimA was considering doing one based on the CM bringup but he hasn't had the time.